Christmas

Merry (belated) Christmas everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday.

Obviously, this was our first Christmas with Ronan and it was very nice. On Christmas Eve, I cooked a dinner in the model of what my family always did - turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls (of course), etc. We cut up portions for Ronan too so he could eat it with us - he really enjoyed the turkey. The mashed potatoes were a bit messy, but he enjoyed that as well.

After dinner, we went to church. I wasn't sure how he would do, since church started at 7 p.m. and he's usually in bed by 8. I was afraid he'd be cranky and cry during the whole thing. Instead, we had the opposite problem - he was super happy and excited (I think it was a mix of all the people there plus the lights and candles and just being out so late) and so he did a lot of happy shrieking and loud babbling. The people behind us were great - I could hear them laughing and talking to him, but the woman in front of us kept shooting us dirty looks. Tom and I ended up taking turns with Ronan out in the narthex, but you could still occasionally hear him from inside the sanctuary. I'm still a little annoyed about the one woman. I understand it's disruptive and we were trying our best to keep him quiet but a.) it was the family service, so if you're not thrilled by kids, you probably want to go to the later one b.) she was with her children who also (by the sounds of it) have a baby who they had left at home and c.) it wasn't like he was crying and throwing a tantrum. He was just really happy. I guess I've gotten spoiled by how well he normally does at church and how all the regulars keep complimenting him. :) Still, it was nice to go as a family and overall I enjoyed it.

On Christmas morning, we opened our presents to one another. Ronan, who normally loves tearing and ripping paper was uninterested in opening his present, so we had to help. Once we opened it, he played with it for about two minutes and then spent the rest of the day playing with the TV remote and Tom's desk chair. Ah, the simple things. After presents though, Tom went to bed to try to catch a little sleep before we went over to his folks' house and Ronan went down for his nap. The dogs came in and also fell asleep, so for awhile, I was the only one awake, watching the rain and paying bills. Not exactly the Christmas of my childhood.

That afternoon, we all went over to Tom's parents house where most of his family had gathered. It was great to see everybody and we had fun. Today Ronan and I are going back over there for the gift exchange for all the kids.

I'm already looking forward to next year's Christmas, when Ronan will be almost two and probably much more excited about it. It'll also be nice to get up to MN over New Years and see everyone there. Hopefully all the flight delays/cancellations will have worked through by that point and it'll be smooth sailing for us. :)